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Tweak SmartScreen Win 8 now uses Web Explorer's SmartScreen system-wide, checking downloaded files to ensure they're safe. This is a good thing - a report by NSS Labs revealed that IE10 blocks more malware than any other browser - but if you have any problems then it can be tweaked. Launch Mono Panel, open the Action Centre applet, & click Change Win SmartScreen Settings in the left-hand pane. Here you can keep the warning, but avoid the filter for administrator approval, or turn SmartScreen off altogether. Make your solution & click OK to finish. 33. Set up Win 8 File History Win 8 includes an excellent File History feature, which can regularly & auto back up your libraries, desktop, contacts & favourites to a second drive (even a USB flash drive - just connect it, & choose 'Config this drive for backup using File History' from the menu). To set this up, go to Mono Panel > System & Security > File History. Click Exclude Folders to help define what you're saving, Advanced Settings to choose the backup frequency, Change Drive to choose the backup destination, & Turn On to enable the feature with your settings. & once it's been running for a while, you can check on the history for any file in Explorer by selecting it, choosing the Home tab & clicking History. 34. Use VHD - enhanced Win 7 added support for making & attaching digi hard drives in Pc's VHD format. Now Win 8 extends this with the new VHDX format, which makes better performance, extends the maximum file size from 2 to 16TB, & makes the format "more resilient to power failure instances" (so they shouldn't get corrupted as easily). Launch the Computer Management Mono Panel applet, choose Disk Management, & click Actions > Make VHD to give the format a try. Or, for an easy & free way to make VHDX files from physical drives, take a look at the excellentDisk2vhd. 35. Keep apps quiet Win 8 apps will often raise updates, alerting you to new emails, messages, calendar instances, status updates & more. This is commonly a good idea, but if you don't want them popping up when you're not working at the system (overnight, say) then a new Win 8.1 feature can help. Open the Charms bar, click Settings > Change PC settings > Search & Apps > Updates. As before, you can selectively turn off updates for player apps, but a new 'Quiet Hours' option allows you to turn them off altogether for a period of time. Just turn 'Quiet Hours' on, set the 'From' & 'To' times - 00:00 to 07:00, say - & you're done. Unless you're using the PC, updates will be disabled during that period. 36. Pool storage spaces If you have multiple hard drives packed with data then you'll know that managing them can be a hassle. But that's all about to change with a new Win 8 feature, Storage Spaces. The idea is that you can take all your hard drives, whether connected via USB, SATA or SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), & add them to a storage pool. & you can then make 1 or more spaces within this pool, formatting & accessing them as a single drive, so you've only 1 drive letter to worry about. What's more, the tech can maximise your performance by spreading files across multiple drives (the system can then access each chunk simultaneously). There's an option to mirror your files, too, so even if 1 disk burn your data remains safe. & if your Storage Space begins to fill up then just plug in another drive, add it to the pool & you can carry on as before. Yes, we know, this is just a client-friendly take on RAID. But there's nothing wrong with that, & it looks promising. If you'd like to read up on the tech param then theofficial Win 8 blog has more, & you can then make & manage your drive pool from the new Mono Panel\System & Security 'Storage Spaces' applet. 37. Enable digi devices Install 64-bit Win 8 Talent or Firm & you get Pc's Hyper-V, enabling you to make & run digi devices (as long as you're not running in a digi device already). Launch OptionalFeatures.exe (press Win Key & R & type it in to run), check Hyper-V & click OK to enable the feature. Then switch back to the Start screen, scroll to the right, find & click on the Hyper-V Manager tile to begin exploring its capabilities. 38. Smart search When you're in the mood to track down new Win 8 features relating to a specific topic, you may be tempted to start by manually browsing Mono Panel for interesting applets - but there's a simpler way. If you'd like to know what's new in the area of storage, say, just press Win+W to launch the Settings Search dialog, type "drive", & the system will return a host of related options. That is, not just those with "drive" in the name, but anything storage-related: BitLocker, Device Manager, backup tools, disk cleanup, & interesting new features such as Storage Spaces. This Search feature isn't new, , but it's easy to forget how useful this can be, when you're trying to learn about a new os. So don't just carry out specific searches, use the Apps search to look for general keywords such as "privacy" or "performance", & you just may discover something new